Where Water Waits

As spring draws to a close, join Neotectonic Vocal Ensemble for a celebration of vitality and rejuvenation. The natural world teems with life in Stephen Leek’s contemplative forest chorus ‘Kondalilla’ while the cricket strongly declares his love in Josquin des Prez’s ‘El Grillo’. As flowers rise and turn towards the light, so too does the spirit in Guy Forbes’ ‘O nata lux’ and Hussein Janmohamed’s ‘Sun on Water’.

Indeed, this program is woven together by water. It is water the life-giver that takes centre stage in Bob Chilcott’s five-part ‘The Miracle of the Spring’ and Edward Elgar’s ‘As torrents in Summer’. Water then assumes a more sombre character in Samuel Barber’s ‘To be sung on water’ and Eric Whitacre’s ‘A boy and a girl’.

Neotectonic is delighted to welcome Karen Grylls as our guest artistic director for this concert. We hope to see you there.

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Neotectonic Vocal Ensemble was founded in 2021. Beginning as a nine-person ensemble, they are now a 16-strong chamber choir who perform all around Tāmaki Makaurau several times a year. Their repertoire ranges from Byrd and Victoria to Morten Lauridsen and Caroline Shaw, including various New Zealand and world premieres. Past collaborations have included with St. Matthew’s Voices, pianist Soomin Kim, and Wairua Sinfonietta.

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Dr Karen Grylls CNZM (2023) is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, Conductor Emerita of the Auckland Chamber Choir and of Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) Trust, the managing body for the NZ Secondary Students’ Choir, the Aotearoa Academy Choir, the NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ Chamber Choir which she founded in 1998.

Karen is passionate about choral music to which she has dedicated her life thus far. Her legacy of choral conductor training, professional choral performance and long-standing relationships with Te Ao Māori and Pasifika musicians, has been recognised nationally and internationally in competitions and international juries. In 2023, she was honoured in the King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours, as a Companion, for services to Choral Music.

Her additional current roles see her as Conductor in Residence for various secondary schools in the upper North Island, Artistic Co-Director of the NZ Children’s Choral Academy (with responsibility for Conductor and Music Educator Development) and Assistant Conductor to the Hamilton Civic Choir. Karen is delighted to be Guest Conductor for Neotectonic Vocal Ensemble in their final concert for 2026.